Promotion

Use code BEST25 for 25% off storewide. Make sure to order by 11:59am, 12/12 for holiday delivery!

Go to Hachette Book Group home

Search

Site Preferences

Show prices in:

By clicking “Accept,” you agree to the use of cookies and similar technologies on your device as set forth in our Cookie Policy and our Privacy Policy. Please note that certain cookies are essential for this website to function properly and do not require user consent to be deployed.

Opera 101

A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Opera

Opera 101 Open the full-size image

Contributors

By Fred Plotkin

By Placido Domingo

Formats and Prices

On Sale
Dec 1, 1994
Page Count
512 pages
Publisher
Grand Central Publishing
ISBN-13
9780786880256

Price

$21.99

Price

$28.99 CAD

Format

Trade Paperback

Format:

Trade Paperback $21.99 $28.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around December 1, 1994. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

Buy from Other Retailers:

Opera is the fastest growing of all the performing arts, attracting audiences of all ages who are enthralled by the gorgeous music, vivid drama, and magnificent production values. If you’ve decided that the time has finally come to learn about opera and discover for yourself what it is about opera that sends your normally reserved friends into states of ecstatic abandon, this is the book for you.Opera 101 is recognized as the standard text in English for anyone who wants to become an opera lover–a clear, friendly, and truly complete handbook to learning how to listen to opera, whether on the radio, on recordings, or live at the opera house. Fred Plotkin, an internationally respected writer and teacher about opera who for many years was performance manager of the Metropolitan Opera, introduces the reader (whatever his or her level of musical knowledge) to all the elements that make up opera, including:
  • A brief, entertaining history of opera;
  • An explanation of key operatic concepts, from vocal types to musical conventions;
  • Hints on the best way to approach the first opera you attend and how to best understand what is happening both offstage and on;
  • Lists of recommended books and recordings, and the most complete traveler’s guide to opera houses around the world.
The major part of Opera 101 is devoted to an almost minute-by-minute analysis of eleven key operas, ranging from Verdi’s thunderous masterpiece Rigoletto and Puccini’s electrifying Tosca through works by Mozart, Donizetti, Rossini, Offenbach, Tchaikovsky, and Wagner, to the psychological complexities of Richard Strauss’s Elektra. Once you have completed Opera 101, you will be prepared to see and hear any opera you encounter, thanks to this book’s unprecedentedly detailed and enjoyable method of revealing the riches of opera.

Genre:

You May Also Like

A Mad Love
A Mad Love $36.00 $46.00 CAD
Marriage of Figaro (Book and CD’s)
Marriage of Figaro (Book and CD’s) $19.95 $23.95 CAD
La Boheme (Book and CD’s)
La Boheme (Book and CD’s) $19.95 $23.95 CAD
Carmen (Book and CD’s)
Carmen (Book and CD’s) $19.95 $23.95 CAD
La Traviata (Book and CD’s)
La Traviata (Book and CD’s) $19.95 $23.95 CAD

Fred Plotkin

About the Author

Fred Plotkin is the author of the bestselling and acclaimed Opera 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Opera, which is the standard text in North American for discovering the glories of opera. He writes for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Opera News, Das Opernglas, and Gourmet.

He lectures on music for leading institutions, including Columbia University, the Juilliard School, and the Smithsonian. Plotkin is a popular guest on the intermission features of the Chevron Texaco-Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, and many shows on National Public Radio. An expert on Italy, he has written five definitive books on Italian food and wine.

Learn more about this author

Placido Domingo

About the Author

Learn more about this author